A special election this week that could determine whether or not the A.S. Council was correct to ban “graphical depictions of sexuality involving nudity” on Student-Run Television is not changing the university’s hard-line stance on the station’s revival.
Because the university owns Triton Cable, which broadcasts SRTV’s signal, it will have full purview over the station no matter the outcome of the election, according to acting Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Life Gary R. Ratcliff. Also, a provision in the A.S. constitution prohibiting the A.S. Council from acting on overturned legislation makes university officials wary of allowing the station to return without proper oversight, Ratcliff said.
“Overturning the A.S. legislation prohibiting graphic depictions of sexual activity involving nudity means a SRTV show producer could produce a pornographic program much like Steve York’s and air it,” Ratcliff said. “I fully anticipate the university will not provide SRTV access to the Triton Cable network to air graphically explicit sex acts.”
In response to a pornographic film shown on SRTV made by York, a John Muir College alumnus, the A.S. Council implemented a ban on graphic nudity in an Oct. 26 bill.
After York showed another pornographic film, this time with Thurgood Marshall Senior Senator Kate Pillon’s face superimposed on an adult film actress, the council passed legislation on Nov. 2 that barred York, his production company and “Koala TV” from the station’s premises. Fearing that the council could not properly enforce the rule over a weekend, student government leaders ordered the station shut down on Nov. 4. Administrative officials then denied the request to reactivate the station on Nov. 7.
Under the A.S. constitution, a 15-percent voter turnout is required for the election to be valid, which is not much less than the 20 percent of students who voted in last year’s A.S. elections. Special Elections Manager Puneet Gupta said he is optimistic about student participation.
Most of the $600 allocated from the $4,000 A.S. elections budget will fund laptop rentals for the polling station as well as publicity fliers and sample ballots, according to Gupta.
A debate, staged on Jan. 20 in Price Center, featured banter between York and Thurgood Marshall College Council Chair Denis Shmidt on the nuances of free speech and the election.
York accused the A.S. Council of buckling under pressure from the administration and not upholding students’ First Amendment rights.
“Our student government has ignored thousands upon thousands of students … and [has] bowed down to administrative pressure,” York said.
The administration, not the A.S. Council, is at fault for SRTV’s shutdown, according to A.S. President Christopher Sweeten.
“Let me make this clear — A.S. did not shut down the television station, the administration did,” he said. “A.S. requested that the station be turned back on. [The administration] decided to keep it turned off until [it] had an assurance that this issue would not be brought up again year after year.”
During the debate, Shmidt suggested that the council was, in fact, listening to student opinion, and was acting in students’ interests. Students should realize that airing pornography on SRTV reflects negatively on UCSD as a campus, and could haunt them in future job interviews, he said.
“The A.S. Council gets pressure from everyone — the administration, students,” he said. “The pressure we did fold to was student opinion — students that said they didn’t want to be known as ‘the porn school.’”
York dismissed this argument, citing examples of reputable schools with controversial, pornographic media — such as Harvard’s H-Bomb magazine — and noted that these publications have not debased the prestigious campuses.
According to Gupta, difficulties arose in organizing the debate and finding a speaker to face off against York. This reflects the fear that York’s “political satire” of Pillon created, according to Shmidt.
“It’s ironic that this has become a freedom of speech issue,” Shmidt said. “A lot of people didn’t want to speak out against pornography because they were afraid. A lot of people didn’t even want to do this debate, because the person that did ended up with her face on porn the next week. Is that free speech?”
The debate ended with an act symbolic of York’s signature bombastic manner: UCSD’s men’s crew team members performed a suggestive dance in the middle of Price Center plaza in skin-tight shorts.
Before the administration green-lights SRTV’s return, the A.S. Council needs more control over the station, in the form of a program review board that would screen SRTV content, according to Sweeten.
“The program review board would be made up of SRTV members, A.S. members and students across campus that would go over programming, making sure it meets the criteria required,” Sweeten said. “SRTV provides a lot of live T.V. shows, so they would have to turn in a script ahead of time and not differ from it.”
Meanwhile, a separate SRTV task force has been drafting a new charter for the station and plans to meet with university representatives for their recommendations, according to task force member and Vice President of Academic Affairs Harry Khanna.
“Irrespective of whether the decision of the A.S. Council is overridden or not, my hope is that the administration respects the decision of the students and allows the station to come back on the air,” Khanna said.
Sweeten said that if the election overrides the bills, the A.S. constitution will not allow changes to the SRTV charter for one year, keeping SRTV off the air.
“At that point, the only thing we could do is try to go on to an advocacy with the administration,” Sweeten said.
